Bath City v Bristol Rovers
Pre-season fixture, Twerton Park, Wednesday 16 July, 7:00pm
Bristol Rovers will return to England looking to get back to winning ways when they travel to Bath City.
The Pirates travelled to southern Spain for a week as part of their pre-season schedule, with Darrell Clarke and his coaching team testing the players with intense double training sessions throughout the week in preparation for the upcoming Sky Bet League Two season.
To conclude the camp, Rovers faced Sky Bet League One outfit Stockport County, coming from two goals behind to level the fixture at 2-2 thanks to goals from Ollie Dewsbury and Luke Thomas before falling to a late defeat. It came after Rovers beat Chippenham Town 2-1 in Clarke's first fixture back in charge.
Bath finished 13th in the National League South last term and fell to a 5-1 defeat to Port Vale in their previous pre-season outing.
Tickets...
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Travel...
Set off from Bristol on the M32 (or join the A4 if coming from the city centre). Follow the M32 south, then take the A4 toward Bath. As you approach Bath, continue onto the A36 (Lower Bristol Road). After passing Bathwick Tyres, look for a left turn under a railway arch into Twerton—Twerton Park sits about 200 yards down on your left, just past the shops.
Opposition...
Bath have been a model for consistency in the National League South and have played in the league since the 2012/13 campaign. In that time, the Romans' best finish was sixth in the 2023/24 season, qualifying them for the playoffs before losing at the quarter-final stage against Braintree Town.
However, they were unable to build on their positive finish from last term and finished the term in 13th place. Rovers' upcoming opponents have lost their first two games of pre-season, falling to a 1-0 defeat to Taunton Town before a 5-1 loss to Sky Bet League One team Port Vale.
There will also be a familiar face in the home dugout. Wayne Carlisle, who played 71 league fixtures for Rovers between 2004-06 and was the Assistant Manager at the Club in 2024, is now at Bath.
Mitch Beardmore and Brad Ash have signed permanently for the Romans after loan spells at Bath in the previous term, with Will Jenkins-Davies also joining ahead of the new season.
Previous Meetings...
Rovers beat Bath 1-0 in their most recent meeting, with Chris Martin netting a late winner in July 2024.
Three years ago, on their return from warm-weather training in Portugal, two sides for two games were selected on July 12, with one team going to Twerton Park to take on Bath and another team to Hardenhuish Park to face Chippenham Town. Almost 2,000 attended the game against our former landlords, and Rovers were beaten 3-1, with Ryan Loft netting after 12 minutes.
On July 8 2011, with new Manager Paul Buckle in charge, Rovers recorded another 2-0 victory thanks to goals from Joe Anyinsah and Wayne Brown. There were just six minutes on the clock when Anyinsah gave Rovers the lead when he rifled a left-footed shot past home goalkeeper Glyn Garner. Brown’s goal arrived in the 61st minute when, following good work by Michael Boateng and Eliot Richards, he comfortably beat Jason Matthews from 12 yards.
In July 2005, after playing at Twerton Park against Team Bath 24 hours earlier, Rovers returned to beat their hosts 2-0 thanks to goals from Mark Preece and Junior Agogo. Preece scored on 16 minutes when he lashed the ball high into the net after the home defenders failed to clear a Ryan Williams corner. Agogo’s goal arrived with six minutes of the game remaining when he turned in the area and fired a left-foot volley past goalkeeper Paul Evans.
Previous meetings words by Keith Brookman
